Band of HM Royal Marines Portsmouth

Director of Music: Major NJ Grace BMus(Hons) FLCM LRSM RM
Bandmaster: WO2 A Williams BMus(Hons) LRSM AMusTCL RM
Drum Major: CSgt Bug SJ Boorah RM

With thirteen soggy members of Portsmouth Band returning from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, undoubtedly the busiest term on record began. Having recently been drafted to this band my husband was literally in shock when he discovered he had nine gigs in as many days and is at last realising the true meaning of hard work!

The most rewarding engagements of the term happened in late September when we played to two contrasting audiences yet both of whom were equally moved by our performances. The first were pupils of St Luke's Secondary School, Portsmouth who were completely enthralled by our well choreographed concert in which we demonstrated every musical aspect of our job from a Mess Beatings and a string quartet to a jazz trio, jazz quintet, big band, dance band and finally the full concert band. Cpl Bug John Sumner’s rendition of Toploader’s Dancing in the Moonlight had every pupil on their feet dancing, clapping and singing along at the top of their voices. It was great to see so many young people who had never been to a concert of this sort before, so excited and engrossed in our music. The second engagement was in Bury St Edmunds to raise funds for St Dunstan’s and the West Suffolk Blind Association. As a former R.E.M.E and now a member of the St Dunstan’s, Mr Anthony Lee witnessed the nuclear tests at Easter Island and as a result he is losing his sight. He and his wife Brenda are organisers of the charity in the local area and it was very rewarding as a musician to see how much our music moved him and to see the joy we can give to people who have done so much for us in the past.

Portsmouth Band at the Goodwood Revival weekend

This term has seen us performing on the Isle of Wight, at the Royal Hospital School Holbrook, Guilford Cathedral, Tunbridge Wells (where CSgt Bug ‘Beanie’ Boulton was ordered by Maj Grace to salute his mum in the audience), Chichester Cathedral, at the Goodwood Revival weekend, and nearly at Hampton Court. After hanging around for three hours waiting for the biblical rain to end, it didn’t so the organisers cancelled our performance for fear of drowning. The fanfare team played at the BBC Proms in the Park hosted by none other than Terry Wogan, where Sue Perkins, winner of the TV show ‘Maestro’, conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra. The Royal Marines Band Service Memorial Service on 12th October once again filled Portsmouth Cathedral with great music such as Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending played beautifully by Musn Andy McKinnon.

On 28th October we were at Portsmouth Guildhall where Harry Redknapp and the Portsmouth Football team were given the Honorary Freedom of the City. This was a great day for Portsmouth but would have been slightly better if Harry hadn’t unexpectedly announced three days earlier that he was leaving the team for Tottenham Hotspur! A fair amount of egg throwing and booing made sure it was headline news and so we were on the TV again.

Alongside these concerts are a lot of rehearsals and engagements that don’t make it to the Blue Band article UNTIL NOW such as the rehearsals with the M1’s and the Bandmasters' courses which are always quite intense and challenging, not just for the conductors but the band as well. There is the endless stream of dinners requiring string quartets, jazz ensembles, mess beatings and parade bands which is why the go-karting and paintballing activities organised by Musn ‘Foggy’ Fothergill keep the morale raised and have been so valued by the band members.

Portsmouth Band became very excited when they thought Katherine Jenkins was Paul Beal's replacement! Kathryn at the RBL Festival of Remembrance

Still bruised from the go-karting marathon the day before, RBL rehearsals got into full swing to produce an entertaining display at the Royal Albert Hall, on the Saturday night of Remembrance Weekend, alongside other performers such as Katherine Jenkins and Hayley Westenra (who Musn John Reed was determined to chat up). David Cole’s arrangement of Rocky featured the guitar genius of Musn Matt Gregory from RMSoM and the screamingly high talents of Bd CSgt Russ Young on trumpet. The BBC also showed the entire drum static on TV much to the amazement of the Buglers. Actually they were on top form all night, they even managed to have their epaulettes done up for the drum pile this year! The following day was of course the Cenotaph parade where the strong among us held our heads high and instruments too. The Army and R.A.F bands may put their basses and actually most other instruments down at every opportunity but we won’t be seen doing that! When the thousands of veterans march past with pride after standing there for just as long as we have, if not longer, it’s worth every minute of waiting (two hours, forty minutes to be precise!).

Back again at Whitehall two days later on 11th November, ninety years after the end of the 1st World War, the PDM led the tri-service bands in a ceremony where the three surviving veterans from World War One, Harry Patch (age 110), Henry Allingham (age 112) and William Stone (age 108) laid their wreaths at the Cenotaph.
Our congratulations must go to Musns George and Stu Fothergill on the birth of their son Zachary, a little brother for Olivia. Well, at the time of writing this article, we’re not even at long weekend leave yet but are looking forward to playing at the Portsmouth verses AC Milan UEFA Cup football match later this month and then its straight on to the Christmas concerts! It can’t get busier than this! Can it?!

Musn Kathryn (Nails) Harris

Japan 2008

They worship new Gods in the Tateshina Heights, Negano Prefecture, Japan. The five colossi that made up the Portsmouth Band brass quintet strode manfully into the Barakura English Garden and inserted English culture into willing Japanese with excellent music, compulsory English vocabulary lessons, good manners, one or two cheeky gags, Hendricks Gin, personal hygiene and fresh socks and pants, as Michael Robinson was in charge.

This gig has been going on for seven years now and I know of no one who has not enjoyed it. Barakura English Garden is about two hours' drive from Tokyo in the mountains in a quiet tourist area, which in October is out of season. A few hotels, no nightlife, so what is so good about it?

Firstly the Japanese practically bent over backwards to be as accommodating as possible. Most of the older generation still believe in the mythological England of good manners and common decency as their culture is based very much on respect and they seem to have a mutual admiration for us. Everything was organised and worked and if any problems did occur they were fixed straight away. Also, if you behave yourself and at least try to speak their language they very much appreciate it.

We flew out with ANA, the only problem with which were the large Germans who couldn’t get comfortable in the small Japanese seats and consequently kept me awake for the whole fourteen hours. Excellent cabin crew, good food, more than adequate entertainment, and all our gear well looked after. At Narita Airport we met the redoubtable Mr Muneshiro Yamazaki, our Mr fix-it. We were then taken to Tateshina, with everyone suffering from monumental jet lag, and then ensconced in the Hotel Tateshina with its boil in the bag natural hot spring bath.

Next day we met the Yamada family who run Barakura, and settled down to the rehearsals for the next five days, which consisted of four to five separate gigs a day, which included four fashion shows featuring strapping six foot Japanese models, (grown especially for the event), sauntering up and down the catwalk. Apart from the ten minute opening fanfare and photo call sequence the other slots were 45 minute little concerts with our audiences sat about two feet away politely pretending not to hear every mistake. We managed to hold our ground though with a fairly broad programme. People did comment that we were laughing and smiling a lot and eventually realised that it was when someone put in a howler, deliberate or otherwise. Mark Upton playing the Canadian Brass version of Amazing Grace got the biggest ovation every time we played it.

Left: The Japan 5 in concert. Right: Mike 'Kate' Robinson and Nick 'Elle' Bailey on catwalk duty

At the end of each day, back at the hotel after another basting in the hot spring baths, the hotel laid on a proper Japanese meal, completely different each night. This took about an hour and a half to get through and as sometimes it was not to everyone’s taste, Kev Lil, Mark Upton and I hoovered up after everybody to make sure the locals would not be offended. To round off the day it was back to my room for English spirits and for Mr Yamazaki to get a vocabulary lesson in English colloquialisms, courtesy of me, complete with diagrams and correct pronunciations. Mr Yamazaki was a fine pupil and amused us by practising his homework translating Michael Robinson’s introductions during our little concerts.

The Japan 5 being lightly boiled in the hot spring

Jet lag usually finished us off by about 10 pm. One week is about right for this job, any longer and there would be a real danger of it becoming ‘Ground Hog Day’. The real pleasure was the hospitality of the locals, from the Yamada family to the staff and one appropriately named creator of stained glass objects called Yummy, whose grasp of the English language, her wares and her aesthetic attributes did provoke some attention from us. The last day was honestly quite sad, saying all our last goodbyes to everyone accompanied by the traditional swapping of presents, then, it was off to the nightspots of Tokyo for a day and the long haul back to London Heathrow and reality.

If you ever get a chance to do this trip and have never been to Japan it is really worth going. We were fortunate in that all five of us got on and worked well together and all got on very well with our hosts. Kev Lillington is considered to be very sexy in Japan as Japanese women like their big men. Mike Robinson and Mark Upton made the Japanese brass and youth bands sound very English and very less American, as Michael was in charge. Nick Bailey was very good with the Japanese kids and I am the finest English teacher these people will ever see. Whoever goes next year will hopefully see the results of our efforts. In the end though it is the Japanese themselves who make the trip as charming as it is.

Paul Bateman

Holland Bowl Goes To The Royal Band

Due to the various commitments throughout the world that the RN has been tasked with, rugby has been in slow decline over the last few years, as has RM Band Service rugby, that was until Wednesday 1st October 2008.

The Holland Bowl (the Band Service’s equivalent of the Argyll bowl) is played in memory of Musn Barry Holland who was fatally injured when a coach he and the rest of RM Band Plymouth were travelling in crashed on the M4 more than fourteen years ago. Due to a number of factors (not least the fact that fewer people are learning the art of the front row), the Holland Bowl has not been challenged for more than three years, that was until the Chairman of RMBSRFC, Capt Rich Long, after much consultation with the more senior Band Service players, decided to turn it into a 7-a-side tournament.

The date was set for the afternoon of Wednesday 1st October preceded with a training session under the watchful eye of CPOPT Dusty Millar. The first game was between the Band from CTCRM and the Portsmouth ‘Royal’ Band. It was a fairly one-sided affair with the Royal Band coming out easy winners with a 31-12 victory. However, as the tournament went on CTCRM Band began to play some good sevens rugby and looked as if they could make the final.

The Band from Scotland used their ‘heavier weights’ to great effect by keeping it close to the ruck and driving up the middle. Not particularly sevens rugby but Drum Major Buster Brown and BdCpl ‘Smudge’ Smith were very effective none the less. The plan was to draw in all defenders and eventually release the experienced veteran BdSgt Nige Jones to use his pace to cross the try line.
The Royal Marines School of Music entered a very young and inexperienced team but they played with plenty of aggression and pace. With so few playmakers amongst them, they were always going to struggle; however, there was some young talent on display and these players will certainly be the ones to watch in the future. Sadly the team some had as pre-tournament favourites, Plymouth Band, struggled to find their form on the day. Pacey wingers BdCpl Gareth Keachie and BdCSgt Mark Phillips tried to use all their experience to create some openings for others to run into but it was all in vain.

Without doubt the game of the tournament was the semi-final between Portsmouth and Scotland. Huge commitment from both sides ensured a frantic pace both in attack and defence. The heavier pack from Scotland kept up their game plan by trying to bulldoze their way over the Portsmouth line but the Royal Band were having none of it. Both teams showed real commitment to the cause, delighting the large crowd with resolute defence and great attacking flare. It was 5-0 to Scotland Band with a minute to go when the ball was stolen from a Scottish ruck and passed along the line to Musn Steve Hall who rounded his defender to score under the posts. BdSgt Dave Prentice, from the Portsmouth Band, drop kicked the conversion to win the game 5-7 and set up a final that was to be a replay of the first game - Portsmouth against Lympstone.

The final was another exciting tussle between the two bands but CTCRM Band had given their all too early in the tournament and had little left for the final. The Portsmouth Band came out worthy winners 25-15 and remained unbeaten for the whole of the tournament.

A huge vote of thanks must go to LPT Rob Moses and the PT staff at HMS Raleigh, CPOPT Dusty Millar and BdCSgt Andy Gregory for organising such a terrific event and one which we hope will continue for many years to come. Grass roots rugby is still in decline but, as shown at this tournament, there are many undiscovered talents out there just waiting to be unleashed; all they need is the opportunity. Who knows, there maybe another Musn Spencer Brown out there.

Last updated April 2009